This is KGW news at sunrise.
Well thanks for being with us.
We start this morning with heartbreaking
news for Blazers fans and all of
Portland's legendary announcer Bill
Shanley has died at the age of 93.
His friend and biographer Kerry Eggers
tweeted the news early this morning.
Sean Lee of course served as the
Blazers play by play voice from
the franchises inception in 1970,
a role he would occupy for
nearly three full decades until
1998 that included the Blazers.
Championship season in 1977 and he
is the man who coined the term Rip
City when referring to Portland.
Now the Shawn's would later return
to the Blazers organization as a
team ambassador in the community
that he just loves so much.
Again, Bill Shanley has died.
He was 93 years old.
I'm Tim Gordon alongside Chris McGinnis.
And I know a lot of people getting
this news this morning or thinking
about their favorite memories,
starting to see it pop up on the
social media. But what a great guy.
Really.
Yeah. And you know the voice.
You've heard it if you've been
here for any length of time.
He is synonymous with the Blazers.
Yeah he is. He is the mayor of city for sure.
Alright, let's take you to
the Oregon coast right now.
A live look from Lincoln City.
Our Chinook winds casino
resort camera on the beach.
The surf is up and of course the
with the King ties this weekend,
the increased threat of sneaker waves.
Anybody headed to the beach,
it's just a rule always.
But especially today don't ever
turn your back on the ocean right.
So keep one eye to the left or
right as you kind of come along the
beach and keep an eye to the sky
too because the rain is going to
be coming down here pretty soon.
In fact Radar now showing.
Rain along the South Washington and the
North Oregon coast up towards Astoria,
Snow in the higher terrain
of the coast range.
The snow levels will creep up.
So I'm not anticipating any problems there,
but be on the lookout.
The clouds are quickly moving in.
This weather system is quickly moving in.
So we've got a dry morning and actually
the fog has thickened up a little
bit over downtown Portland right now.
This is the live look from
our Wells Fargo Sky camera.
Temperature wise,
we're in the low to mid 30s.
It's 35 in Vancouver,
35 downtown Portland Tiger checking in with
35 and it's 34 at last report in Salem.
All right,
the plan for today.
We certainly have frosty areas
and foggy areas.
Clouds are quickly thickening.
Tim Rain already falling
along the North Oregon coast.
I think it gets to the Portland
Vancouver metro area sometime
between about 10 and maybe 11:30.
So midday rain and then maybe
some sun breaks and a breeze
to finish off our Saturday
lot of variety today.
Thanks Chris Allen Gresham police
say a man tried to sexually assault
a woman before she fought him off.
She called police but ended up waiting
on hold for an hour and a half.
Police say the woman.
Called the non-emergency number and not 911.
Catherine Cook talked with police
about when and when not to call 911.
We're wanting just to people
be a little bit extra vigilant
and justice keep their eye out.
Thursday afternoon around 12:15,
Gresham police say a man attacked
a woman at Pat Pfeiffer Park.
That's near NE 172nd and Burnside.
This was an unprovoked
attempted sexual assault.
Officer Jeremy Swayze says the woman was
alone and just trying to enjoy the park.
She thought of her attacker and ran away
from the park and then called called it in.
Unfortunately, the like I said the call.
Was routed through the non-emergency
line so there was a delay.
That delay, according to police,
was an hour and a half,
90 minutes until the victim was
able to report what happened.
Once she did,
police say they responded right away,
but by then the suspect was
nowhere to be found.
Portland Bureau of Emergency
Communications tells us in a case
like this it would have been
appropriate for the victim to call 911.
The question is why wasn't she
certain enough to call it?
We asked Bowick spokesperson.
And alfit hearing a scenario
like that, what does that tell you?
I mean it's, it's terrible.
And somebody needed law enforcement
right away and they they weren't
able to connect with us.
And so it just shows that we need
to continue working to make it so
that people are not waiting a long
time to reach our call takers.
And he says it's important to remind
people when they can and should call 911.
In recent months, victims of many crimes
have been asked to call the non-emergency
number to keep 911 open for urgent.
Responses doubt that admits
the messaging can be confusing.
He hopes this example will help.
If someone is in the act of breaking
into a vehicle and they're still at
that vehicle trying to break in,
you would call 911 because you need
to have law enforcement right away.
If you find your vehicle
broken into many hours later,
that would be an example of
1 to call the non-emergency.
According to Boek,
the average whole time for calling
911 was 45 seconds in November.
Still below the national standard,
which recommends 90% of 911 calls
be answered within 15 seconds,
the city is dealing with 15 to 30% more 911
calls now than they were a few years ago.
And they're short on dispatchers.
A few months ago they had
37 unfilled positions.
Doubt that says in the next year
or so they should all be filled
with the increase that we've
seen in total 911 calls.
This will help us be able
to to manage that better.
Well, if you are ever in doubt about
what number to call during an emergency,
boek says to call 911.
A dispatcher can then reroute you to the
non-emergency line if your call can wait.
But as we saw in this case,
the reverse is not true.
Portland police are investigating
2 more deadly shootings that
happened early Friday morning.
They've arrested one person so far
who's suspected in the shooting death
of a man near SE 84th and Taylor
that happened around 2:00 AM Friday.
Another person was killed a few
hours earlier in northeast.
Portland, near 42nd and Prescott.
There have been no arrests yet in that case.
Victims names have not been released as well.
Well, thieves smashed up a Portland store,
getting away with more than
$100,000 in cash and merchandise.
You can see the surveillance
video here from cameras inside
the House of pipes that caught the
break in early Wednesday morning.
The thieves broke open display cases,
and pride is safe out of the floor.
The store's owner says police didn't
come to investigate until 12 hours later.
The owner is calling on the city
to do better to protect businesses
from rising crime.
They're also hoping someone
recognizes the suspects.
You see right there.
We're solving the staffing shortage
that's been taxing local hospitals.
Workers on all levels,
from nurses to hospital leaders,
agree it's time to make a change.
Alma McCarty found out they're now
bringing their concerns to Salem.
Friday afternoon outside
Providence, Oregon headquarters,
nurses line up with signs rallying support,
the Union calling for strong
contracts for frontline workers
within the Providence system.
When it falls in Saint Vincent,
you know, we just bargained last
year we won very strong contracts
we were really happy with.
So we're really hoping that
our sister hospitals can,
you know, do the same.
The group also advocating for all
nurses, pushing for what they call
safe staffing at all. Hospitals.
Virginia Smith is a board member
with the Oregon Nurses Association.
Ultimately, it helps all of
Oregonians to have, you know,
nurses at the bedside that are trained,
that are well taken care of,
that get the rest and meal breaks,
and they have enough help
to actually do their jobs.
Over the past three years,
they've been especially stretched thin
with more patients than ever before.
We're all just kind of holding our
breath and really trying to kind of
hold still just to see what was going
to happen next and now with the.
Decrease in overall health of
our total communities. You know,
we're seeing people that are sicker
and sicker walking through our doors.
Pretty dire conditions, you know,
all of us are a little tired
and overwhelmed, exhausted.
It's no surprise to anyone here
that so many have left the bedside.
Deborah Williston, who's been
a nurse for more than 20 years,
says it's time for a change. Most
corporate medicine, in my opinion.
Including Providence talks about.
Patient centered care and that's
what we needed to get back to and
we needed to get back to supporting
the people who provide that,
Providence sent a statement
to KGW writing in part.
We take staffing extremely seriously
and are working hard to attract
new nurses and retain our current
valued caregivers through market
competitive compensation and benefits.
The hospital system also noting
the nursing shortage is a
national and global problem,
a problem the state's hospital.
Association is also working to fix
the long term solution to our workforce.
Challenges are to grow
the healthcare workforce.
At this point in time,
we simply don't have enough
available staff to hire.
Both groups are calling on the Oregon
Legislature to take action this session,
presenting agendas specifically aimed
at recruiting and retaining nurses,
incentivizing nursing educators and
stabilizing hospital systems, the bills
we have proposed.
About the full scope of changes
we may be contemplating,
we need to engage in a collaborative
process with stakeholders to
come up with a bill that works
for employees but continues to
protect patients access to care.
While the nurses and hospital
administrators agree on most of
the Bills expected this session,
there is some debate over House Bill 2697.
OA is advocating for the bill,
which establishes minimum
standards for nurse staffing and
imposes penalties on hospitals
for a failure to adopt the plan.
The Oregon Association of Hospitals
says it's concerned that the bill
could cause hospitals to shut down
beds if they can't hire enough staff
to meet the ratios laid out in that bill.
We'll be right back.